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Herbs

Herbs are very easy to grow and are essential ingredients for all types of cooking, as well as injecting life into a salad. Grow them on your windowsill or create a herb garden just outside your kitchen door, so that you can easily pick a few leaves to add to your meals.

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One of the most useful kitchen herbs for stews, stuffings and bouquet garni. This aromatic, evergreen thyme will grow almost anywhere in containers, rock gardens, borders, and even cracks in paving. Ideal for creating low, matt forming groundcover that will attract bees to the tiny, pink blooms. Thyme is particularly useful in coastal areas where it copes well with winds and dry conditions. Height: 30cm (12"). Spread: 35cm (14").

With slender bronze green leaves and lilac tubular flowers, this hardy annual makes an attractive addition to the herb garden. Summer Savory lends an aromatic peppery tang to soups and seafoods. It's mild flavour is useful as an alternative to sage or thyme, and it is also used to aid digestion, reduce fevers and soothe bee stings.

Grown next to broad beans it is reputed to help repel black fly. Gather Summer Savory when harvesting your broad beans and cook them together - it does wonders for the flavour. The secret is to have your Summer Savory 15cm (6in) tall by early May to plant out amongst your beans! Height: 45cm (18"). Spread: 30cm (12").

This hardy perennial herb has sweet smelling, aromatic foliage which is commonly used in Mediterranean cuisine. Try it sprinkling oregano on lamb or pork before cooking. Oregano, also known as Pot Marjoram makes a useful and low maintenance addition to the herb garden. The flowers produced in summer and autumn can also be used for flavouring after they have been gently dried. Height and spread: 45cm (18").

One of the most useful kitchen herbs for stews, stuffings and bouquet garni. This aromatic, evergreen thyme will grow almost anywhere in containers, rock gardens, borders, and even cracks in paving. Ideal for creating low, matt forming groundcover that will attract bees to the tiny, pink blooms. Thyme is particularly useful in coastal areas where it copes well with winds and dry conditions. Height: 30cm (12"). Spread: 35cm (14").

Lemon Thyme is particularly special, with a potent lemon fragrance, which travels through the air when brushed lightly. The unique flavour of Lemon Thyme leaves also means it can be used in desserts, unlike the traditional, more savoury Thyme. The summer, pink-white flowers make this fragrant Thyme an attractive addition to herb gardens, flower borders, rockeries, along pathways or in patio pots.

This hardy perennial herb is easy to grow and unfussy about soil or site conditions. Thyme is useful as ground cover, and can also be used in coastal areas, where it copes well with winds and dry conditions. Height: 30cm (12"). Spread: 35cm (14").

A beautifully aromatic plant, which is short, bushy, evergreen and makes an attractive, low-growing, flowering hedge. Hyssop makes an attractive plant for the border where it will attract bees and butterflies.

The electric blue flowers of Hyssop are long-lasting and look fantastic when planted en masse in the border, or of course in the herb garden, or as a low hedge on the vegetable plot. Height: 60cm (24"). Spread: 100cm (39").

Culinary note: Some parts of these flowers are edible. For more details about edible flowers click here.